WHEN Michaela Strachan looks back on her early career as a children’s TV presenter, there’s one thing the 51-year-old still can’t get her head around: being a heartthrob.

As the presenter of Saturday morning TV show Wide Awake Club, which she co-hosted with Timmy Mallett, and The Really Wild Show, her bubbly personality and blonde locks made her a favourite with teenage boys up and down the country.

“When I was on the show, I wasn’t aware of being a heartthrob,” she says. “When I look back at the things I wore I think: ‘How could anyone fancy me looking like that?’ I mean, clothes were dodgy in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

“The only time I was really aware of it was in 2007 when a pop band called Scouting For Girls released a song called Michaela Strachan, You Broke My Heart. “It’s really funny and hugely flattering to have a song written about you. Particularly that song. It was a really good ego boost, let’s be honest.”

Now, more than 20 years on, Michaela says her looks are still the subject of discussion when she appears on TV.

Some of the world’s greatest wildlife photographers have come together to give a remarkably candid view of our most cherished and elusive birds and mammals at ease in their remote haunts

But these days it is mainly to debate whether she has gone under the knife. “It’s really weird having people arguing online about your face,” she says.

“The comments are always hilarious. Some people say I look really haggard and others say I look great... but only because I’ve had work done.”

However Michaela is keen to point out that not only has she not had cosmetic surgery but she wouldn’t even consider it.

“I can categorically tell you that I haven’t had Botox. I can’t imagine wanting to put a foreign substance in my face like that.” For Michaela, life was thrown into sharp perspective in 2014 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a double mastectomy.

“I was terribly pragmatic about it,” she told TV’s Lorraine Kelly at the time, admitting the choice to have both her breasts removed was “empowering”. “But I underestimated the physical and emotional impact of the operation and also the stress involved,” she said. Yet, three years on, Michaela says she feels better than ever.

“I’m 51 now but I don’t feel much different than I did when I was 30,” she says.

“I don’t feel 20 any more because I am a lot more confident about myself but apart from that I don’t think I’ve changed as a person.” She keeps fit with a combination of yoga and Pilates and loves nothing more than walking her dog with partner Nick, 58, a cameraman and their 12-year-old son Ollie.

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'I’m 51 now but I don’t feel much different than I did when I was 30' says Michaela Strachan

It’s really weird having people arguing online about your face

Michaela Strachan

“I do stay active. I live in South Africa right next to the Table Mountain National Park and I absolutely love it. Walking in the mountains is like my sanctuary.”

Living in South Africa also means Michaela can go about her daily life without being recognised.

“I get spotted a lot less in South Africa. When I’m there, I’m just Ollie’s mum and nobody knows really what I do, particularly now that I do Springwatch and Autumnwatch which aren’t shown anywhere but the UK.

“It’s very levelling when I go home and it’s back to normal life. It’s refreshing and I think that’s very good for people who are on telly.

GETTY

TV presenter Michaela Strachan in 1990

“When people recognise you and make a fuss of you all the time, it can affect your ego. My ego is brought crashing back down when I go home.”

Yet Michaela says working so far away from home can be tough. “It’s a juggling act, as any working mother knows, but we tend to juggle it pretty well. For my son it’s always been like that. Ever since he was born, mum’s gone away to work,” she says.

“My partner also goes away filming but we’re very rarely away at the same time and I try very hard to make sure that I’m with him in the holidays. “What’s so nice is that when I am at home I can be with him all the time. I can make sure that I pick him up from school, take him to football matches and be there whenever he needs me.”

Though Michaela may be best known surrounded by wildlife, she admits she never thought a career in television was on the cards.

A trained dancer, as a girl she dreamt of the stage rather than the screen. “When I was growing up, my passion was with musical theatre. If I look back, I never ever would have thought that this would be the path my career would take.”

Yet Michaela says she wouldn’t change a thing. “When you work with animals, every day is different. Once I was filming in the forest in Borneo with orangutans and I saw a little one behind me ‘reading’ a book. When I looked closer, I realised it was my book from my bag.

“Then another orangutan took my make-up bag and proceeded to go to the top of the tree and start completely demolishing my products.

David Crump/Daily Mail/REX/Shutterstock

Michaela Strachan admits she never thought a career in television was on the cards

“So I had to do 10 days’ filming in the middle of nowhere with no make-up. But despite thieving primates, it’s a lot of fun.”

It was on The Really Wild Show where she first met her fellow Springwatch co-presenter Chris Packham.

“When I first met Chris, I thought he was going to hate me because we were so different. “I was this bubbly, smiley, slightly wacky children’s presenter who loved pop music. Meanwhile, Chris was an angsty, punky guy with spiky blond hair, who loved really loud rock music.

“Thankfully we instantly got on and we found that we had a lot in common. Despite our differences, we have the same sense of humour a lot of the time.”

She and Chris have worked together now for 25 years and have an undeniable on-screen rapport.

“Chemistry is either there or it isn’t, you can’t make it work. Chris and I have got a great respect for each other and we totally get one another. We’ve known each other for so long now we don’t mind taking the mickey out of each other, and having the mickey taken out of us,” she says.

Having worked in the industry for three decades, Michaela says she can’t believe her luck.

“I feel very privileged and very lucky and I’m still learning all the time. Although I never thought this would be the path I’d take, I’ve loved every minute.”

● Michaela Strachan is working with Old Mout Cider to launch one-off wildlife show The Kiwi Wild Show to help save the endangered kiwi bird.